TV Review: Ghost Whisperer – “Cause for Alarm”/Medium – “Baby Fever”

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is, according to the International OCD Foundation, “a medical brain disorder that causes problems in information processing.” If you have ever met someone with OCD, then you know that the symptoms vary from compulsive hand washing to repeating tasks to as slight as not being able to set a task aside unfinished. Chad Lowe guest starrs on Ghost Whisperer as a computer software genius with a bad case of OCD. Not only does he compulsively lock doors, he taps everything he touches three times. Before I move on, I'd like to say that Lowe did an excellent job. His movements, his speech patterns, and even the way he sat in front of the keyboard convinced me that this man was not only a genius, but a genius suffering from OCD.

The story starts with Aiden telling Melinda and Jim that he needs Flash, his flashlight, in order to sleep. Unfortunately, no one knows where Flash is and Melinda goes and lays down with him. We see that Eli is going to visit his latest patient, security-conscious software developer Nathan Weiss (Lowe). Nathan needs to keep security tight because he had a close call with having his video imaging software pirated. He moved his business to his home because he works better and he is paranoid. The man is so paranoid he sleeps on a cot in his safe room.

Nathan has not been able to handle his OCD habits. He needs to have his habits controlled because he is releasing new software this very week. He asks Eli to help him control his OCD and his paranoid feelings. Naturally, Eli says he'll help and we're off and running.

Now, this is beginning to bug me a little, but Melinda can apparently see visions that Aiden is having if she touches something right after he does. Because of Aiden's young age, I can see how he is unable to interpret his visions, but seriously, his mother will be able to see them? I think this is pushing the limit of believability just a bit. Also, Aiden is an empath and I get that, but I'm having a problem believing that he can be empathic to someone he's never met. They're stretching the logic here.

Back to the story… Eli realizes that Nathan is being haunted. Thanks to Melinda's visions of what Aiden feels, they learn that Nathan had a younger sister. His OCD didn't exist before his sister was murdered at a very young age. At first, Eli and Melinda believe that Nathan is being haunted by his dead sister. Then, while at Nathan's house, they run into Amy Warner. Amy used to be Nathan's girlfriend. She warns Melinda that he has to get out of that house. Before Melinda can discover what this ghost means by that, a security officer tells her that she should be on her way.

Amy and Nathan's son, Garrett, has taken a job at Nathan's company. He wants to ruin Nathan because Nathan did nothing to help Amy during her losing battle with breast cancer. What Garrett doesn't know is that Amy never reached out to Nathan for help. When Garrett decides to release Nathan's software on the an open source site, he cuts power to Nathan's safe room, trapping Nathan and Melinda inside. It had been a long time since Melinda was in trouble on the show. It was a little refreshing. Amy finds Eli and he, with Garrett's help, rescues Nathan and Melinda.

We learn that the best time of Nathan's life came once he met Amy. He loved her deeply, but when she didn't come home one night, he threw their love aside and moved on. He couldn't bear the thought of losing her, like he had lost his sister. He didn't even find out why Amy hadn't come home. What had happened was that Amy had fallen ill and spent the night in the hospital. While there, she had discovered that she was pregnant. Because Nathan cut her off, she never had a chance to tell him about Garrett. Amy crosses over, leaving Garrett and Nathan to work on their newfound father/son relationship.

Later that night, Jim gives Aiden a new flashlight – the kind doctors use. After saying “they will like this,” he runs off to his room with Jim and Melinda right behind him. He tells them that his friends like shiny objects and he shows all of the shiny things he has collected for them. Aiden tells his parents that his new friends are not ghosts and we're left wondering just what these friends could be.

Medium – “Baby Fever”

Medium begins with the three girls – Ariel, Bridgette, and Marie – reverting back to babyhood. Allison is thrilled with the prospect of her three girls being babies again, but in her dream, Joe isn't. Allison wakes up and asks Joe what he thinks about them having a fourth child. He doesn't say a word.

That morning, we learn that Bridgette is taking clarinet lessons. Ariel is being very encouraging to her younger sister. She's “encouraging her to stop.” Bridgette breaks her reed and Joe promises her that on the way home from school, he'll buy her another one. As a former clarinet student, I find this totally unbelievable. I always had spare reeds.

Allison and Lee are off that morning investigating a missing baby. This very rich couple (the Carlos – Scott and Dana) are missing their infant son, Brice, and they suspect their housekeeper, Elizabeth, of taking him. Allison hears a baby crying and excuses herself to find the source. She finds Dana, curled up in a chair, in the nursery. Dana is abnormally calm. She tells Allison that she knows Elizabeth will take good care of Brice. Allison is upset by Dana's lack of concern.

Lee and Allison go to Elizabeth's home and find nothing, but Allison finds a picture of Elizabeth with Brice. She takes the picture with her. She becomes a more than a little overly attached to Brice.

Meanwhile, Joe takes Bridgette and Marie to the music store. While Bridgette and Joe are deciding on reed sizes, Marie picks up a clarinet and plays like she's been playing for years. Joe is thrilled that he has a musical prodigy on his hands. Bridgette is upset that she's been struggling on the clarinet, while Marie has this gift.

Back to Allison — the picture of Brice and Elizabeth starts crying. Allison finds it in her purse and begins talking to it. After going through the house, the picture laughs when Allison steps into the garage. She determines that Brice wants her to go somewhere. She takes the picture out while driving around. Eventually, she finds the house where Brice is being kept in an oven.

When Joe and the girls return home, they both have news. Allison tells him to go ahead, but when Brice cries, he decides Allison's news is more important. Allison is convinced that she can't give Brice back to his parents because he isn't safe. Joe manages to persuade her to give Brice back, which they do with the help of Devalos.

Watching Allison become obsessed with this baby was fascinating. She has Joe come with her to the Carlos' house at three in the morning. She feels the need to see and be with him constantly. After Elizabeth is found dead, Allison kidnaps Brice. After calling Joe from a hotel room, she dreams of what really happened.

Elizabeth had taken Brice. She put him in the oven so her cousin wouldn't find him. Her cousin and a buddy of his wanted to kidnap Brice. Elizabeth, while at first going along with the plan, changes her mind when she learns that her cousin doesn't have any intention of returning Brice unharmed. Her cousin, in a rage, kills her and dumps her body. Allison wakes up to three police officers who have come to arrest her.

It turns out that Elizabeth's cousin was still going ahead with the kidnapping plan even after Elizabeth's death. If Allison hadn't taken Brice, who knows what might've happened. The would be kidnappers were caught when they arrived at the Carlos' house. Dana agrees not to press charges against Allison, provided she never tries to come near him again.

Meanwhile, during all of this, Bridgette doesn't want to take clarinet lessons anymore. She hates being Ariel's little sister, because Ariel is so smart and now she'll be nothing more than Marie's older sister. She's having quite the time being the middle daughter. She breaks down in tears to Joe, who doesn't quite know what to do. It doesn't help that his wife is so obsessed with someone else's son that she is MIA.

Eventually, Marie confides in Bridgette that she doesn't really know how to play the clarinet. Some old man keeps trying to teach her how to play. Bridgette, still angry that Marie has stolen her musical thunder, asks, “Why tell me?” When Marie says it is because Bridgette is her big sister, you see Bridge's heart melt.

Bridgette gets Joe and he has a conversation with Marie. Bridgette asks him how they're going to fix the problem and Joe admits that he really doesn't know what they should do. They might just need to play this out.

At the end, Bridgette gets to fix the problem. She hears the tune that Marie has been playing coming from a building at school She meets a man playing the tune on a piano. He tells her that he doesn't know the ending of the song because he and his father were writing it together. But his father has died and he doesn't know the end. Bridgette gets all excited as she puts two and two together. She races to get Marie, brings her and clarinet to the man, and they make beautiful music together.